CHRISTENDOM Series: The New Church

The New Church

(Other)

And to him they had regard,

because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.

Acts 8:11

This religion is called Swedenorgian, also known as "The New Church". In the 1700's Emanuel Swedenborg, from Sweden, began the movement based upon visions he was receiving from a "guide" from the spiritual realm. Swedenborg claimed to have been taken to Heaven & Hell & wrote a booklet about it which became his most famous writing. He began keeping a journal when his strange dreams started. This was later published after his death as "Journal of Dreams."
Swedenborg claimed that in 1757 he had been taken up to witness the final judgment. Also, that Christ had returned the following year, spiritually to earth, through Swedenborg & his writings. He claimed that he had been taken to the other planets in our solar system, including our moon, and that all are inhabited. By the 1900's, his mystical ideas were interwoven by some of his followers with occultism. They are Unitarian rather than Trinitarian. He taught that the 6 day creation wasn't of the world, but a symbol of 6 spiritual steps for the rebirth of mankind.
Swedenborg predicted that he would die on March 29 (which he did) and seemed to be happy about it, wanting to permanently go over to this spirit world. (He had even written a letter to John Wesley of the Methodist movement about it).

The interest in Swedenborg, who generated a following worldwide, began with a prediction during a dinner that a serious fire broke out in Stockholm (well over a hundred miles away) and that his neighbors house had burned and his had been threatened. When news finally arrived of the truth (thousands were left homeless from the fire) people began to want to hear his teachings.
John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) was a follower of The New Church as he planted & preached in America. The deaf & blind activist Helen Keller was also a member of the New Church.

Swedenborgian Church in North America - this branch allows for each member to decide how much of Swedenborg's writing to take serious. They are also very theologically liberal & pluralistic. About 2,000 members.
General Church of the New Jerusalem - this branch holds the Bible & writings of Swedenborg to be equal as "scripture". Also, they are the more theologically conservative branch. About 6,000 members.

CHRISTENDOM Series Outline Link:
http://master1844-dc.blogspot.com/2015/06/christendom-series-outline.html

"Miss Keller, a Christian, makes it clear that she is an ardent believer in the 'New Church' views of Christianity.  As a Swedenborgian (as the denomination is sometimes called), she looks upon Swedenborg's writings as being supplementary to and an explanation of the Bible. After describing the bewilderment and longing for something spiritually more satisfying than she had yet found, Miss Keller tells of her emotions when, in her middle teens, she began to read much of Swedenborg's works as had been put into Braille:

"Here was a faith [she says] that emphasized what I felt so keenly -- the separateness between soul and body, between a realm I could picture as a whole and the chaos of fragmentary things and

Keller on the left

limited physical senses met at every turn . . . As I realized the meaning of what I read, my soul seemed to expand and gain confidence amid the difficulties which beset me. . . . Gradually I came to see that I could use the Bible, which had so baffled me, as an instrument for digging out precious truths, just as I could use my hindered, halting body for the high behests of my spirit. . . . So I grew to womanhood, and, as unaccountably as Conrad found in English the language of his choice, I took more and more to the New Church doctrines as my religion. They have lifted my wistful longing for a fuller sense-life into a vivid consciousness of the complete being within me. Each day comes to me with both hands full of possibilities, and in its brief course I discern all the varieties and realities of my existence, the bliss of growth, the glory of action, the spirit of beauty." OakArborChurchForLife